At 85, Richmond grandma to be a maid of honor

Family PhotoEighty-five year-old Candita (Candy) Siconolfi of Richmond, models the gown she'll wear as the maid-of-honor for her granddaughter Kiona Baez's wedding Sept. 17 in Vermont.

RICHMOND - From the moment she was born, Candita (Candy) Siconolfi‘s granddaughter, Kiona Baez, was the apple of “grandma Candy’s” eye.

Mrs. Siconolfi baby-sat for her granddaughter, and as she got older, took her to the playground, to school, and even on vacations. “We were very close. We went everywhere together,” the Richmond resident recalled.

And so, it was a no-brainer for a grown-up Kiona, now 26, to ask her 85-year-old grandmother to play a special part in the most important day of her life. Come Sept. 17, when Kiona steps up to marry the love of her life, Lincoln Heath, during an outdoor ceremony in Vermont, Mrs. Siconolfi will serve as her granddaughter’s “maid of honor.”

“At first when Kiona asked me, my mouth was open, I was so surprised,” Mrs. Siconolfi said. “Of course, I was honored, but a little nervous, because I just don’t know of anyone my age who has done this before.

“My husband would have loved this,” Mrs. Siconolfi added. Her husband, Rocco, died in 2008. The couple had moved from Brooklyn to Richmond 49 years ago.

The first order of business for Mrs. Siconolfi was to pick out her dress. She was fortunate to find a champagne-colored, three-quarter length gown in Macy’s, in the Staten Island Mall. She took the dress to a bridal seamstress in Brooklyn, where she had it custom-fit to her frame.

A few days before the wedding, Mrs. Siconolfi said, she and her daughter, Linda, a biochemist, and Linda’s husband, Luis Baez, will fly to Vermont together. The wedding is to take place at Pigeon Hill Farms, about an hour from Bennington, with an outdoor ceremony in the gardens, followed by a reception in a converted barn-turned-catering hall, for about 100 guests. In addition to Mrs. Siconolfi, the groom’s brother, Marshall Heath, will serve as best man.

Grandma Candita (Candy) Siconolfi of Richmond with baby grandaughter Kiona Baez. Mrs. Siconolfi, 85, will serve as her granddaughter's maid of honor when Kiona, now 26, gets married on Sept. 17 in Vermont.

Kiona, in a phone interview from her home in Vermont, said the decision to ask her grandmother to be her maid of honor “just made sense to me.”

“I grew up very close to my grandmother. So when I considered who the most important person in my life has been, other than my mother, the person who has always been there for me has been my grandmother,” she said. “She’s been my best friend, my teacher, the person I confided in when I was growing up, and who was always open and honest with me. We had a lot of fun, memories and good times together. I knew that I wanted her by my side on my wedding day.”

Kiona, who grew up in Brooklyn with her parents, left to go to college, at McGill University in Montreal, where she earned a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy and African studies.

While at McGill, she spent a semester studying abroad in East Africa, where she met her future husband, a pre-med student at McGill. She went on to study at the University of Vermont, where she earned a master’s degree in public administration. She and her husband-to-be settled in Vermont, near Bennington, where she currently works for a non-profit advocacy organization that counsels victims of domestic violence.